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GOP FRETS SANFORD COULD BLOW IT – Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford easily defeated Charleston County Councilman Curtis Bostic, 57 percent to 43 percent, in Tuesday’s GOP runoff election for a vacant House seat. But national Republicans aren’t celebrating, POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt reports. [M]any privately concede the former governor could hand a safe Republican seat to Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch. The affair that sent Sanford’s political career off the rails only begins to describe his baggage. Fellow GOP pols don’t like him. Neither do female voters. His campaign is largely an exercise in seeking forgiveness for his transgressions four years ago — a defensive crouch that makes it tricky to take the fight to Colbert Busch, the sister of late-night comedian Stephen Colbert. Sanford’s liabilities could force outside groups to spend precious resources doing his dirty work — all to salvage a district that Mitt Romney won by 18 points.

-- “The concern among national Republicans that Colbert Busch could steal the 1st District seat is so real that they’re prepared to do whatever it takes to shepherd the former Republican governor to victory – including dumping cash into the race, sources told POLITICO. But Sanford forces will have a hard time overwhelming Colbert Busch in the competition for dollars: her brother is going all out to raise cash for his older sister. ‘This race is by no means a slam dunk for Republicans,’ said one national GOP official. ‘If anyone says they know how this race is going to play out, they’re kidding themselves.’” http://politi.co/17ctPB4

HOW IT PLAYED IN S.C. – “Republican voters in the First Congressional District appear to believe in second chances after handing Mark Sanford -- whose political career seemed over following an extramarital affair -- a resounding victory in Tuesday's GOP runoff. …” Gina Smith writes for the Island Packet in Hilton Head. “The Charleston Republican celebrated his victory in Mt. Pleasant with his girlfriend-now-fiancee Maria Belen Chapur, his sons and supporters by his side. ‘There's an amazing reservoir of human grace out there. Until you've experienced it, it's hard to believe,’ Sanford said Tuesday night. ‘A lot of people have liked where I've been coming from for a long time on tax and spending issues. As I've traveled the district, that's what I've heard, that I was Tea Party before Tea Party was cool. It's been a really amazing three months.’”

-- “Colbert Busch released a statement late Tuesday, saying Sanford ‘simply has the wrong values for our community.’ She predicted ‘a vigorous campaign that focuses on creating jobs, balancing our country’s budget and choosing an independent-minded leader who shares the values of the great people of South Carolina.’” The Post and Courier in Charleston: http://bit.ly/10wGuJJ

-- The general election is set for May 7.

BOEHNERLAND MOURNS LOSS OF AIDE – From the speaker’s office: “The Office of Speaker Boehner lost one of its own last week when Mary Reed, the financial administrator for the Speaker and other House members, lost her battle to cancer. Mary supported many members of Congress over the years, most recently including Reps. Joe Heck (R-NV), Tom Latham (R-IA), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Jeff Miller (R-FL), and Steve Stivers (R-OH), as well as the Speaker. She is survived by her husband John and her children Casey and Kate. Speaker Boehner released the following statement: ‘We mourn the loss of Mary and send prayers and condolences to her husband John, her family, and friends. Mary made a lasting contribution not just to my office, but to the U.S. House of Representatives as a whole. She was a loyal and dedicated staffer who always brought kindness and humor to those around her, and she will always be part of Boehnerland.’ Condolences can be sent to the following address: P.O. Box 870, Stanardsville, VA 22973. A memorial service to celebrate Mary’s life will be held in May.

OBAMA TAKES GUN-CONTROL MESSAGE TO COLORADO – Allison Sherry reports for the Denver Post: “At a forum with law enforcement officials and community leaders at the Denver Police Academy, Obama will praise lawmakers and Gov. John Hickenlooper for passing some of the nation's strongest gun-control measures after the shootings in Aurora and at a Connecticut elementary school. He will also push Congress, which has been lethargic on the issue, to move on proposals pending in the U.S. House and the Senate. But the desire from the White House to cast Colorado as an all-supportive bastion of gun-control-loving people is complicated by some stark realities: Colorado lawmakers remain embroiled in debate on whether the state's new laws will make a difference and police are investigating death threats against lawmakers. The president's message is that if Colorado — a rugged, Western state with deeply rooted gun values — can pass stronger gun laws, can't the country?” http://bit.ly/XLCPdK

BACKGROUND CHECKS STILL STUMBLING BLOCK TO GUN DEAL – Michael D. Shear writes for the New York Times: “With Senate Democrats still struggling to line up support, the success or failure of President Obama’s four-month campaign to overhaul gun laws will most likely revolve around a single provision: a proposal to expand federal background checks for gun purchases. … But even though around 90 percent of those polled in public surveys support background checks, the fight for it and the rest of the first major piece of gun control legislation since 1993 faces a difficult test in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, Senate aides said that formal debate and substantive votes on the gun issues would probably slip to the week of April 15 — a setback considering that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, had pledged that it would be the first issue to come up when Congress returns from spring recess next week.

-- “Background checks are central to the delay. Efforts to reach a compromise between Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, have foundered. Separate talks between Senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Mark Steven Kirk, Republican of Illinois, have also yet to yield a breakthrough.” http://nyti.ms/10v0jBD

RAND-BACKED GROUP TAKES AIM AT REPUBLICANS – Kate Nocera reports for the hometown paper: “Sen. Rand Paul, the tea party favorite and possible 2016 presidential candidate, is raising money for a conservative gun rights group that’s targeting fellow Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. And when one congressman complained, the message from Paul’s camp was: too bad. The Kentucky Republican has lent his name to fundraising pitches for the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that says the National Rifle Association is too willing to compromise on gun rights. The group has blitzed the districts of Virginia Republicans Cantor and Rep. Scott Rigell with $50,000 worth of TV and radio ads accusing them of helping President Barack Obama pass gun control legislation. Paul’s email pitches for the group don’t mention Cantor or Rigell by name, but his activity for an organization that attacks fellow Republicans shows the potential 2016 presidential contender isn’t afraid to pick a fight inside the party.” http://politi.co/Xoz4f2

AN NRA-BACKED STUDY unveiled Tuesday calls for armed staff at schools, CBS News reports: “[A] group associated with and funded by the National Rifle Association (NRA) is pushing its own proposal for reducing mass shootings in schools, unveiling Tuesday a 225-page ‘school safety’ report that recommends sending a trained, armed officer to every school in America, as well as various ‘layered security’ measures it says will make schools safer. Led by former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., who announced the plan in a press conference Tuesday morning, the so-called ‘NRA National School Shield Initiative’ outlines eight recommendations it says would boost school security nationwide. Hutchinson stressed that the ‘initiative’ is fully independent from the NRA -- which he said budgeted $1 million for the effort -- and that the pro-gun lobby was under no obligation to enforce any of its recommendations.” http://cbsn.ws/Xd8lzN

PAST FOES RETURN TO IMMIGRATION FIGHT – Manu Raju and Anna Palmer write for POLITICO: “For the past several weeks, conservative critics of a comprehensive immigration bill have remained mostly mum as Senate negotiators privately hammer out a sweeping proposal they want to unveil as soon as next week. That’s about to change. Forces on the right vow to replicate the 2007 effort that led to the demise of George W. Bush’s immigration overhaul, arguing the plan would be too costly and that it would help foreigners and illegal immigrants at the expense of U.S. workers, not to mention eventually providing many with federal benefits. The goal is to stoke enough outrage on the right to dissuade wayward Republicans and moderate Democrats from endorsing the measure. ‘I think this is a very high-risk operation and a very dangerous game,’ Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading critic of the effort, told POLITICO Tuesday. ‘It has the potential to blow sky high and be damaging if they are unable to produce sound policy.’” http://politi.co/17c6O10

--WaPo’s lead editorial says Sen. Marco Rubio can’t have it both ways on immigration: “A member of a bipartisan group of eight senators trying to hammer out the details of an immigration bill, Mr. Rubio appears paralyzed — or to be trying to have it both ways. At first he led the charge, trying to brand an overhaul of the immigration system as his signature achievement. Then, when progress was made last weekend, he backed away, warning that talk of a breakthrough was premature. Is the Florida senator the once and future darling of the tea party, throwing bombs from the sidelines? Or is he a substantive architect of a workable new system? It’s one or the other; Mr. Rubio needs to decide.” http://wapo.st/Xda1cw

-- AP drops “illegal immigrant” from Stylebook: Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explains in a blog post: “The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that ‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally. Why did we make the change? … A number of people felt that ‘illegal immigrant’ was the best choice at the time. They also believed the always-evolving English language might soon yield a different choice and we should stay in the conversation. Also, we had in other areas been ridding the Stylebook of labels. The new section on mental health issues argues for using credibly sourced diagnoses instead of labels. Saying someone was ‘diagnosed with schizophrenia’ instead of schizophrenic, for example. And that discussion about labeling people, instead of behavior, led us back to ‘illegal immigrant’ again. We concluded that to be consistent, we needed to change our guidance. So we have.” http://bit.ly/14N7Ota

TWITTER TRAFFIC -- @charleywest: Here's @Sen_JoeManchin 's official gubernatorial portrait, which was unveiled at the Capitol this morning. pic.twitter.com/KSKuSqQg8e

KIRK, CARPER COME OUT FOR GAY MARRIAGE – “Two more senators, one from each party, announced their support for same-sex marriage on Tuesday. Their shifts appear to mark 50 votes to legalize such unions in the Senate,” Sara Wheaton writes for the New York Times. “Mark Kirk of Illinois joined Rob Portman of Ohio on the small list of Senate Republicans who back legalizing marriage for gay couples. ‘When I climbed the Capitol steps in January,’ Mr. Kirk said, referring to when he returned to work after spending a year recovering from a stroke, ‘I promised myself that I would return to the Senate with an open mind and greater respect for others.’ He continued, in a statement: ‘Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage. Our time on this earth is limited; I know that better than most. Life comes down to who you love and who loves you back — government has no place in the middle.’

-- “Senator Tom Carper, Democrat of Delaware, took to Facebook to announce his support. ‘As our society has changed and evolved, so too has the public’s opinion on gay marriage – and so has mine,’ he wrote, adding that the Golden Rule had prompted him to believe that ‘all Americans should be free to marry the people they love and intend to share their lives with, regardless of their sexual orientation.’” http://nyti.ms/Xd5ln0

AND THEN THERE WERE SEVEN … – WaPo examines the seven remaining Democratic holdouts who still oppose gay marriage: Tim Johnson (S.D.), who is retiring; Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), who both won reelection last year; Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), who won seats in the Senate last year; and Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (La.), who are up for reelection in 2014. http://wapo.st/Z7W7Fm

-- New York Magazine predicts the next five Republicans who will back gay marriage: http://nym.ag/YvhOUd

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 3, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @dougducey and @Lwbaron.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – The House and Senate are in recess this week.

CASSIDY TO TAKE ON LANDRIEU – The Associated Press’ Melinda Deslatte reports from Baton Rouge: “Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy is running for the Senate next year, seeking to keep Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu from a fourth term in office. Cassidy, a Baton Rouge doctor elected to Congress in 2008, will release a video Wednesday announcing his candidacy. The video was provided to The Associated Press by someone associated with the Cassidy campaign who asked not to be identified because the announcement had not been made public. In the announcement, Cassidy describes Landrieu as too close politically to President Barack Obama, who remains unpopular in Louisiana.

-- “‘As a family, we have decided that I will run for the United States Senate in the election held November 2014,and it's going to be a tough race. I'm running against Sen. Mary Landrieu who's been there for 18 years and against the most powerful man in the world, Barack Obama," Cassidy says, sitting with his wife, Laura. Cassidy, a former state senator, is the first Republican to declare his intention to run for the Senate seat, a move that could determine whether other GOP contenders decide to jump in the race.” http://bit.ly/10v3zNq

CORPORATIONS GET COLD FEET OVER TAX REFORM – Rachel Bade and Jonathan Allen have the story for POLITICO: “Washington is finally starting to get serious about corporate tax reform — and now businesses are getting cold feet. At first, it seemed like an idea the White House, Congress and corporate America could all agree on. Every company would play by the same tax rules: They would give up their special tax breaks in exchange for lowering the basic tax rate from 35 percent to as little as 25 percent.

-- “But with Congress starting to dig into the details, many captains of industry are backpedaling — and fast. The corporations aren’t keen on giving up the special tax breaks that have let many of them pay Uncle Sam less than advertised for years. And they’ve gone on the offense to protect their favorite loopholes. On Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it wants any tax rewrite to protect breaks for capital investments, such as new machinery. Pharmaceutical and technology companies are telling the House Ways and Means Committee that credits for research costs should be preserved. Energy companies don’t want the treatment of expenses related to drilling touched.” http://politi.co/XoG7EL

WaPo, A1, below the fold, “Newark weighs on Bookers likely Senate bid: Contest would be referendum on celebrated mayor’s sometimes shaky stewardship of the city,” By Nia-Malika Henderson in Newark, N.J.: “Cory Booker has become one of the most famous mayors in the nation with the help of a careful political campaign that cast him as a unique talent willing to forgo better opportunities to save this crime-ridden and poverty-plagued city. His story has been enhanced by tales of derring-do: chasing down criminals on foot, extracting a neighbor from a burning building and rescuing shivering dogs stranded in the snow. The ‘cult of Cory’ has produced a windfall of investment in a city that has been dubbed the carjacking capital of the United States, and a bonanza of publicity for the 43-year-old mayor. All of that has helped make the Democrat one of the most prominent members of a new generation of African American politicians who are positioned to follow President Obama’s legacy. They are young, modern, worldly and celebrated by the same multiracial, progressive coalition that elected and reelected Obama.

-- “But for Booker, this new world is complicated by old problems as he makes an all-but-certain 2014 bid to replace Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D), who announced in February that he will retire. Booker’s brand, chronicled in film, magazine spreads and 140-character tweets, stands in many ways wholly apart from the reality of Newark, a majority-black city marred by race riots, corruption and neglect. His likely Senate run, in which he could face tough primary challengers, would be a referendum on his sometimes shaky stewardship of the city. ‘This is a race that will be about breaking jaws in typical New Jersey style,’ said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist. ‘He has to keep the hero story going to keep the attention off of Newark. He can’t say it’s a great place, but he can say it’s better than it was and that he has had the courage to stand up and fight the bad guys.’ Booker’s critics say that a Senate race would expose him as an absentee mayor who is busy tweeting his 1.3 million followers while ignoring the city’s entrenched problems.” http://wapo.st/10wKzO5

SEQUESTER LOOMS OVER ENERGY LABS – Darius Dixon reports for POLITICO: “The Energy Department’s sprawling network of national laboratories helped spawn the atomic bomb and survived the end of the Cold War — and the labs have withstood calls for the federal government to downsize or merge them. But now comes the sequester, which may force the department to do what lawmakers haven’t: downsize this piece of the government despite the parochial politics that have kept the labs going. The 17 national labs cost $10 billion a year and have a storied history — think the Manhattan Project, lithium batteries and particle accelerators. But they’ve become an example of how bureaucratic inertia can thwart calls for streamlining government. The labs also have a major presence in 14 states, meaning that nearly a third of the Senate has a national lab back home. They provide thousands of high-paying jobs, often in rural areas like Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Aiken, S.C. That provides a powerful reason for lawmakers to guard their home turf. The sequester may burst that bubble.” http://politi.co/17c7oMg

AUTHOR, HOUSE HISTORIAN ROBERT REMINI DEAD AT 91 – Emma Dumain writes for Roll Call: “A prolific biographer, scholar, teacher and Andrew Jackson expert, former House Historian Robert Remini died of a stroke on March 28 in Evanston, Ill. Remini, who was still writing books well into his 80s, was 91 years old at the time of his death, according to a notice from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was professor emeritus of history. … A one-time history professor at UIC and at Fordham University, Remini won the National Book Award in 1984 for the three-volume biography ‘The Life of Andrew Jackson.’ In 2002, when he became a visiting scholar at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, he wrote the first, and still the definitive, history of the House of Representatives. The book, published in 2006, is appropriately titled, ‘The House: The History of the U.S. House of Representatives.’

-- “In 2005, Remini was tapped by Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to serve as the third historian of the House of Representatives, and was tasked with overseeing an office that had been all but defunct since 1995. By the time he retired in 2010, Remini had brought on a staff of five and built an operation that would provide lasting resources to the congressional community.” http://bit.ly/12g1Bl8

U.N. VOTE SETS UP OBAMA-SENATE SHOWDOWN – Julian Pecquet reports for The Hill: “The Obama administration defied a majority of the Senate on Tuesday by voting to approve a United Nations treaty on the trade of small arms and other conventional weapons. The treaty, overwhelmingly approved by the U.N., requires countries to create internal mechanisms to ensure that their arms exports aren’t likely to be used to harm civilians or violate human rights laws. President Obama is expected to sign the treaty within the next few months, but it faces a tough road to win the two-thirds majority support needed in the Senate for approval. It is opposed by the National Rifle Association, which argues the accord violates the Second Amendment by regulating small arms, such as rifles and handguns, and calling for the creation of an ‘end-user registry.’ Fifty-three senators voiced their disapproval late last month by voting in favor of a nonbinding amendment to a Senate budget resolution to stop the U.S. from entering the treaty.” http://bit.ly/Z80GQ3

TUESDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Tom Flanagin was first to correctly answer that Ronald Reagan was the first president to throw a pitch at a ball game not on domestic soil. He threw out the first pitch before a 1989 game between the Kintetsu Buffaloes and Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

Since the question wasn’t clear, I’ll also give credit to Jim Casto who noted that President George H.W. Bush holds the distinction of being the first sitting president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch abroad. He did it at the home opener at Toronto’s Skydome in April 1990.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Jimmy Fremgen has another fun baseball question: Since the tradition began of president's delivering the first pitch on opening day, most have done so either from their seats in the stands or by lobbing the ball from the front of the pitcher’s mound to home plate. Who was the first president to throw a strike 60 feet 6 inches from the pitcher’s rubber all the way to home plate? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

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